Small Pleasures

 

Wassily Kandinsky, Small Pleasures (1913)

(The composition of Small Pleasures is centered round two hills, each crowned by a citadel. On the right-hand side is a boat with three oars which is riding a storm under a forbidding black cloud. To the bottom left it is possible to make out a couple at a steep angle to the hill, and above them three horsemen arrested in full gallop. A fiery sun flashes out wheels of color.

On the title: Kandinsky writes of the 'joyfulness' of execution. It is legitimate then, to see the work as a celebration of Kandinsky's style during this period, as affirming the spiritual and practical pleasures he manifestly derived from painting; he speaks of 'pouring a lot of small pleasures on to the canvas'. While giving the impression of heavenly chaos, Small Pleasures is obviously not the product of pure spontaneity. The various modes of paint application, and the complexity of pigment selection and mixing are enormous. The way colors are washed and blurred together, and seldom contained by bounding lines is typical of Kandinsky's work at this time.)

The way to have more pleasure in your life can be either to become a hedonist, focusing on incorporating more big pleasures, or to become a microhedonist or to recognize smaller doses of pleasure.  

Micro-dosing on pleasure.

This doesn't mean pretending that the toils of life are pleasurable. This also doesn't mean that even toils, compared to existential blankness of death, is relatively preferable.  (or compared to torture, hardship, etc.) 

Instead, it means that there are a possibly treasures to be found inside the "normal" life.  (Inside the folds of everyday living.)

Things that reinforce this: Tara Brach's idea of "pausing" between things, Thich Nhat Hahn's idea enjoying the bubbly warm water while doing dishes, Kurt Vonnegut's quotation about saying "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."  (His Uncle Alex's story "What he found objectionable about human beings is that they so seldom noticed when they were happy")